How to Earn Delta Skymiles: From Using the Right Credit Card to Shopping

Delta Airlines’ Skymiles program can be a valuable program for domestic rewards and partner redemption.

Not only does the airline have a huge network of routes in big American cities, but it has many different hubs, but there are many different ways to earn Delta miles where you can redeem your antenna flights. Sometimes Delta even operates reward sales, allowing you to snap up cheap flights.

Delta miles are easy to generate and they never expire. We will show you ways to increase your Skymiles balance, including flying on Delta and its partners, spending on travel rewards credit cards and transferring miles from other programs.

Related: 5 Things to Know About Skymiles in Delta

Earn flights in the Delta

Earning pilots from flying by delta depends on several factors. On Delta and partner flights, your way of making money is different. Here’s everything you need to know.

Earn a few miles when flying with the Delta

When flying on flights in Delta and on operated flights, you earn miles based on the base price of your ticket (excluding government-collected taxes). Flyers without elite status earn 5 miles per dollar on classic or refundable tickets, 7 miles per dollar for additional tickets, excluding taxes and fees.

The higher the money you make for those with the Delta Medal Elite status – the higher your status, the more miles you make per dollar:

• Silver Medal: 7 miles
• gold medal: 8 miles
• Platinum Medal: 9 miles
• Diamond Medal: 11 miles

Earn Skymiles in the Delta while flying with partner airlines

If you book a flight run through a Delta partner, you will get the same mileage as a standard Delta flight. But what happens if you book a partner flight on the partner airline’s website and add your Delta Skymiles number? In this case, you will earn miles based on the distance you fly. However, the exact number of Skymiles you will earn will vary based on partner, fare level and elite status – so check the relevant Skymiles page for the correct revenue rate.

Earn Skymiles in Delta with Credit Card

One of the easiest ways to earn a lot of Delta Skymiles is through a common brand of credit cards, including welcome bonuses and daily expense income. Currently, American Express has released four personal Delta cards and three business cards.

Here are the full suite of Delta Skymiles credit cards from American Express and their current welcome offers (applicable):

Personal Delta Card

Business Delta Card

If you are considering applying for one of these cards, keep in mind the rules that AMEX used to be once a year. This rule limits you to one welcome bonus per card for life. If you have previously received a welcome bonus for the Delta Skymiles Gold American Express card, you will not be eligible to receive it again if you reapply for the card.

That’s why sticking to a high welcome bonus is so important – you will only receive it once.

Transfer to Delta Skymiles

If you need to quickly or don’t want to add another credit card to your wallet, you can transfer points from another bonus program. Delta works with American Express membership rewards and Bonvoy Marriott to make it easy for you to lower your balance when you need it.

Transfer membership reward points to Skymiles

Delta Skymiles has a credit card transfer partner: American Express membership rewards.

You can transfer member reward points to Delta Skymiles at a 1:1 ratio. However, to offset federal excise tax, you will pay $0.0006 per mile (up to $99), so the deal will be more expensive.

Typically, purchasing on a card that earns membership reward points will generate a per dollar spend than a Cobrand American Express card used by Delta. For example, PlatinumCard® from American Express earns 5 membership reward points on flights booked directly with any airline or through American ExpressTravel® (up to $500,000 per year for purchases and then 1 point per dollar per other purchases); Meanwhile, American Express® Gold earns $4 membership reward points per dollar per dollar per dollar per dollar per year at restaurants worldwide, and $25,000 per year for purchases and then 1:1 per year for purchases in the U.S. supermarkets.

Transfer Marriott Hotel to Skymiles

You can also transfer points from various hotel loyalty programs to your Delta Skymiles account, but most of them have poor transfer rates. In our experience, the only attractive transfer is from Marriott Bonvoy to the Delta at a 3:1 ratio.

That said, we usually recommend redeeming Marriott for hotel accommodation, as you usually get better value. Chase and American Express has issued several Marriott hotel credit cards if you are not enough on Marriott Points.

Transfer Skymiles in Delta between accounts

While you can transfer Skymiles between accounts, we do not recommend this. Delta charges $0.01 per mile and a transaction fee of $30. This is not a lot of things because once you pay the applicable fees, you lose most of the value of your mileage and you can only transfer up to 30,000 miles per transaction.

If you decide to go this route, both accounts must be open for at least 10 days and earn at least 1 mile. You can receive up to 300,000 Skymiles per year and transfer up to 150,000 Skymiles per year.

Related: Your Final Guide Collection

Earn Skymiles in Delta by shopping and dining

You can also get Delta Skymiles through several everyday Delta partners. These methods are easier than ever to do what you have done, such as eating and shopping online.

Make money with Skymiles Shopping Portal

Like most airlines, Delta has an online shopping portal: Skymiles Shopping. This site allows you to earn extra Skymiles when shopping online, plus you can earn rewards with your credit card.

To use the portal, sign up for a Skymiles shopping account, find your businessman on the website, and click on the link. Every dollar spent by each merchant offers a different number of Skymiles, and these prices fluctuate especially around the holidays. Also, if you spend a certain amount, the portal sometimes offers bonuses. If you are making a purchase anyway, shopping through Delta’s portal can mean serious reward miles.

Earn money while eating with Skymiles

The Delta Skymiles Dining Plan allows you to earn extra miles when dining out. Simply register an account, link a credit card and dine at a participating restaurant, cafe or bar. When you refresh your registration card at these venues, you can also get additional Skymiles in addition to the miles you have earned with your credit card. Make sure to link a card that earns bonus points in the restaurant and watch the rewards.

The amount of miles you earn through Skymiles meals depends on your status in the program, which is completely different from your medal status. There are three layers: member, select member and VIP. You will become a featured member by signing up for an email alert and you will get VIP status after 11 transactions in 12 months.

If you don’t give the program a valid email address and sign up for an email alert, you’ll stay standard membership and earn only 1 mile for every $2 spent. Featured members will cost 3 miles, while VIP members will take 5 miles per dollar.

Earn Delta Skymiles for your business

Delta’s business plan, Skymiles for Business, is open to all companies regardless of size and annual revenue. However, earning mileage is still limited to companies that spend at least $5,000 of qualified flight revenues per calendar year, with at least five employees travelers. Here is a careful study of Skymiles at the business layer:

• member: Open to any business, without minimum traveler or expenditure requirements
• add: Accounts with at least five employees and $5,000 in annual travel expenses
• Elite: Accounts with at least five employees and $300,000 in annual travel expenses

The additional member earns 1 to 10 miles per dollar on Delta flights depending on the cabin. Elite members earn 15% bonus miles.

Related: Aviation Loyalty Program for Small Businesses

Earn Delta Skymiles with Travel Partners

You can also earn reward miles when you book other types of trips, such as car rental, Lyft rides and hotel accommodation. This is all your travel earning options.

Book with Lyft

When you connect your Delta and Uber account, you can earn Delta miles on Uber rides and Uber Eats orders. You can earn up to 3 miles per mile spent (1 mile on Uberx ride to the airport, 2 miles on premium rides, and 3 miles on Uber Reserve riding. You can also earn 1 mile per mile spent, for over $40 per $ for qualified Uber Eats orders.

Make money on vacation in Delta

Here is the income from a travel package you can earn through Delta Vacations:

• Prices of 1,000 skymiles per person for up to $4,999
• $5,000 per person for Skymiles reservations $5,000 to $9,999
• Skymiles for $10,000 or more per person or more

You can also earn more miles from the flight portion of the vacation package.

Earn Skymiles on a cruise

With Delta Cruises, you can earn 2 miles for every dollar you will be on your next voyage. The platform also offers limited-time bonuses at certain times of the year, allowing you to bring home more miles.

To earn Skymiles on your next cruise, book on Cruises.delta.com or call 800-820-3244 using your Skymiles number.

Earn Skymiles on Airbnb Stay

Just like Delta’s partnership with Uber, you can earn Skymiles on qualified Airbnb accommodation. Simply head to this page, enter your Skymiles number, and click on the link before booking. You will earn 1 mile per dollar on Airbnb purchases (excluding taxes and fees) without limits – so more expensive travel can accumulate a lot of Skymiles.

Earn Skymiles when booking a hotel

In addition to Airbnb, you can also stay in Skymiles through Delta’s hotel booking portal (Delta). Complete accommodation earns at least 2 miles per dollar on the hotel, excluding taxes, remuneration and other fees. Prices on this portal should match the reservation directly, but double checking is in your best interest.

A word of caution: Booking through this portal will not earn hotel points or allow you to use elite identity benefits.

You can also earn Skymiles: World of Hyatt, IHG Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, Shanghai-La Circle and Accor Live Unlimited when you book directly with Delta’s hotel partners. The mileage you earn depends on the hotel group you booked.

Earn Skymiles when renting a car

You can also earn Skymiles when you rent a car through Delta car rental or one of Delta’s partners, including (the ratings of income vary by partner):

• Alamo
• Aves
• Budget
• Dollar
• enterprise
• European car
• hertz
• National
• No payment required
• six
• frugal
• TURO

Buy Delta Skymiles

If you need crunched Skymiles, you can buy them directly from Delta. The airline charges up to 3.5 cents per mile, significantly higher than TPG’s June 2025 valuation of 1.25 cents. You have to buy miles for 2,000 and you can buy up to 60,000 Skymiles per year.

Delta often discounts Skymiles by offering reward miles or miles purchased. Buying Skymiles is only worth doing if you use them right away. Otherwise, speculative buying of mileage is often a bad idea because they can depreciate at any time.

Related: Buy Reward Points and Miles with These Promotions

Bottom line

Whether it’s through flights, credit cards, transfer points or one of the many partners using Delta, there are many ways to earn Delta Skymiles.

better? Skymiles is one of the few loyal currencies that never expire. With the myriad of income opportunities outlined above, you will have no shortage of Skymiles next time you plan to travel.